8 weeks done, 9 more weeks to go!! Training for Glass City Marathon went pretty well… and ended a bit sad… Here’s what happened!….

Monday – 5 easy miles, treadmill. It was a day off work for me, due to President’s day so I got to sleep in a little.  I decided just to run on the treadmill because I didn’t feel like get all dressed up for an outdoor run 🙂  My husband said it was actually quite running outside that morning. I’ll take his word on that! Also, I wanted to get done quick because we had plans!  We went to a toboggan run. Have you ever been on one?? It’s sooooo much fun. You can read about it here: Pokagon toboggan run

Tuesday – 6.5 miles, intervals.  I swear I must have done something wrong on this one because I was not exhausted at the end.  Am I really getting that much more fit? I’m not buying that completely, but the “interval” pace (8:20), which is a bump up from previous paces, actually felt “do able”.  Granted it was only for 600m, but there were 10 intervals with only 30 secs rest between. I also did a warm up and cool down. 6.5 miles done. It was a much needed stress release because we did our taxes last night.  The end result was not good at all 🙁 First time owing taxes in a long time. booooooooooo

Wednesday – 4 miles easy.  I took the pace easy, but I was surprisingly sore!  Then I remembered that I’m trying to get leg work done on Tues & Thurs.  Last night I did a workout designed for skiing (because we are going to Colorado!), so I did that.  Lots of squats and jumping lunges. Yikes. Glutes.So.Sore.

Thursday – 8.5 miles.  Warning: this is one of those great runs that should have a professional actor narrating my description of it.  If that did happen, there would be fireworks and unicorns in it too! LOL Thursdays are “tempo” days, so this run had 2 miles of warm up, and then 5 miles of fartleks.  4 mins on and 1 min off. I wasn’t sure what to expect for my speed “on”, but I was pretty dang pleased with what I saw. They were close to my 5K paces these days. Woot!

Note the leaves trapped in the ice behind me!

The weather was amazing – although the route I was going to take on “my trail” was covered in ice, so I had to think of new plan at the spur of the moment.  Trust me when I say I am a creature of habit when it comes to running and I was amazed I was able to come up with a new plan so quick! I kept to the roads and there was not a large amount of traffic.  Win!!

This is the icy bike trail, no go!!

Friday –  {Rest day… but…}  3.5 miles on the trails. My day off work started pretty leisurely. I crawled back in bed after the kids got on the bus, and napped a bit. Then I enjoyed some coffee cake with Alan. Cherry chocolate coffee cake. This is the cake I make for special occasions – Christmas and New Years. Happy to have found one hiding in my freezer!! 🙂 Then I went to the gym to make it feel like I was working off those calories.

I surely could not pass up an opportunity to run with my friends on a beautiful day at the park.  Some friends had rented out the cabin what we stayed in December at the park (see our cabin adventure –> here), and were spending the night.  I decided not to spend the night, but I did meet up with them for a few miles. It was so pretty out!!

Saturday –  16 miles, long run.  I met up with another friend for my long run.  I feel like we are both in the same boat with our marathon training.  Both of us coming back from injury, feeling like we are one step away from injury, and trying to BQ at Glass City!  Our pace was in sync and we crushed this run. I was happy with the pace, but still not feeling like I could run 10 more miles (at a faster pace!!).

Later, we got to enjoy hanging out with our running friends again at the Toledo Roadrunners club banquet. I call this shot “I’m still eating all the food and can’t smile right now”…

Hooray for beer, and pasta!!

Sunday – REST!  Oh, did I mention I have two suspicious body parts trying to thwart my best efforts?  My left foot has an odd ache on the side (but not while running) and my left knee has been pestering me (also not painful while running).  Well this morning my knee was not in the mood and it bothered me to walk down stairs. Ice, rest, and some meds were on my agenda today. BOOOOOOO!  What? Another overuse injury rearing it’s ugly head? Who saw this surprise ending coming 🙁

Well that wraps up week 8 of training for the Glass City Marathon on April 28th. Great progress made, but future running being questionable now! ugh. Seems like the typical training cycle though when you think about it!

** Need more inspiration? Check out these other blogs in the Weekly Wrap hosted by HoHo Runs and Wendy (Taking the long way home). Looks like this might be the last one 🙁 **

Q: Have you experienced injuries during your typical training cycles?

Q: Did you prepare your taxes yet? Did it go well??

I am still skeptical about our taxes. We use TurboTax and I found a typo in the software!! We will be doing them again.

16 thoughts on “GCM Training week 8 – friends, fun, and ice packs”
  1. You had such a great week! I’m so sorry that you’re feeling some knee pain. Yikes…

    Everyone I’ve talked to is concerned about their taxes. No one is getting money back. We’re paying $$$. Middle class tax cut, not so much.
    Wendy recently posted…RA Flare Don’t CareMy Profile

    1. I know it’s silly, but I’m ticked off that I gathered up info on all of my deductions, and then in the end it’s better to use the new higher standard deduction! Doh! Felt like a lot of work for nothing!

  2. 49 days to Boston and so far (knock on wood) nothing serious. A few odd aches and pains that surface and then fade away. Had to run inside on the treadmill a couple of days last week and noticed it seems to aggravate the inside of my left quad. Got back outside this weekend and it went away. First 20 of this cycle done with 2 more on the calendar.

  3. Glad you’re being smart about those aches and tweaks- hopefully nothing serious!

    That road still looks a little icy, but maybe the picture is deceiving 🙂 Awesome workout!

    1. Oh yes- that is the trail in the picture! It looks like a little road because it’s a paved multi-use trail. 🙂 The roads were super clear that day. Training always has it’s ups and downs – hopefully my angry knee is just a bump in the whole thing!

  4. Sounds like a great week, except for the knee (well, and the taxes LOL). I have never had any probs with either knee, so when I had the out-of-the-blue bursitis (which resulted in staph infection & emergency surgery) I was totally blind-sided. Doubtful your’s is even a fraction of that, but UGH. Hope it rights itself quickly!

    1. What? Oh no, your knee problem sounds bad!! My knee has been “creaky” sounding for many years now, going down stairs, but now it’s feeling like I can’t support my weight on it. Well, I could, but it feels like it’s going to really mess up! Hopefully it will be gone soon!

  5. You had a great week of workouts! So sorry to hear about your knee and I hope that it feels better soon. It looks like you are doing all the right things for a quick recovery (fingers crossed)!

    Regarding your taxes, I’ve heard the same thing from many people this year! I’m not self employed so I did get a refund (luckily), but it was less than last year 🙁

  6. See you have lots of friends! Sorry about your knee and the weird foot thing. Foot stuff always freaks me out because besides PF, I am very unfamiliar with what can go wrong down there! I always owe taxes due to piano lessons. 🙁

    1. Yeah, I guess I do have friends 🙂 Oh yeah, I forgot you have a side hustle too! Darn those taxes. I don’t think I’ve ever had PF (knock on wood), but it seems like it takes forever to get rid of!

  7. amazing week! what a bummer about the pain on Sunday!! that’s not cool!!! I often feel like something just happens whenever things are going well for a while. tonight at spin class suddenly my right knee tweaked. I mean, really??

    i already got a tax bill for 2018 for my meagerly paid extra massage gig. I haven’t even filed yet and they “think” I’m going to owe them EUR 310. So they sent the bill. So happy about that. So I do feel your pain. I hope when you redo your taxes it turns out a better result.

    1. Long bike rides do bother my knees for some reason. I have been wearing a band around my knee when I bike, and I think that helps. I guess I’ll just take another day off running. Ugh.

  8. Oh no, sorry about the twinges, that’s scary. I know I get funny pains when I’m near the big race which I’m pretty sure I make up out of my head. I haven’t got injured during training but I fell over a dog and cracked a rib during my training for my first marathon, and had a scheduled what we’ll call abdominal operation just before my second mara campaign, had a great training block for my third, then missed the race because I got the worst cold in the world (but ran a local marathon distance anyway).
    Liz Dexter recently posted…Sedate lady running 18-24 February 2019 #amrunning #running #FebruaryFiveMy Profile

    1. Oh wow, that’s some bad luck for those races! I hit my ribs on a ski trip one time right before a big race. Ouch, that hurts! Mine was just bruised I guess because in the end I was able to run it.

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